Monster Cables, the makers of the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, recently had a sale that took an additional 50% their refurbished products. I’ve been staying away from the Beats series headphones because they are just hyped and overpriced, though I have yet to try them out. I currently am using the Sennheiser HD202 and love them. I’m not a big audiophile so my needs aren’t too great. With the sale, I figured it’s a good opportunity to try them out. If they suck, well they’re only $50. I ended up getting one for my brother in law as well.
First off, I doubt I’ll ever order another thing from Monster Cables’ website. They’re track order page has been broken. I eventually called their customer service and was on hold for 21 minutes until I was able to talk to someone. Six days later my order was finally shipped. I did, however, receive my items the next day – although it’s from a location 4 hours from my house.
I was excited to see them and visually they are appealing. But it stops there. I plugged them in to my computer and fired up Spotify to start listening. My jaw dropped from how horrible they sounded. Then I thought, maybe it’s the song I’m playing so I changed it, and I changed it, next, next… same crap quality sound. Then I thought, maybe my sound card sucks so I grabbed my HTC Sensation 4G phone and listened to some songs. Nope, still crap! Finally, I grabbed my iPod thinking it’s the devices I’m using. The sound quality has improved, but not by much. I played with the EQ settings and well, they just suck to me.
I’m so disappointed. Maybe I should’ve bought the Studio HD. But again, I wasn’t sold even before I bought these ones, so I didn’t want to take a chance and pay more. It could be that they’re refurbished that the sound quality sucks but both pairs are consistently crap to me. I don’t know how people are paying regular price for these. They sound like small headphones with insolated pads. Turn up the bass and volume, all you get is distortion. Guess I’m thankful I didn’t go for the hype and paid full price but I still ended up getting 2 for $100. Maybe I can walk around with these unplugged and look cool. But still doesn’t change me spending that money, even for refurbished ones.
